M. Haluk Ozyurt
March 1998

Serif Yenen and Turkish Odyssey

As a professional tourist guide for almost ten years, Serif YENEN (Odemis, 1963) prepared and published a guide book on Turkey: TURKISH ODYSSEY.

Chapter "DID YOU KNOW" right after the introduction summarizes the historical, social, cultural, religious, etc. aspects of Turkey. (All our guide colleagues should note them too.)

In Chapter "HISTORY", YENEN summarizes the history of Turkey from the Paleolithic age until the Turkish Republic (pages 25-82), and continues with the "Physical and Demographical Geography" (pages 83-99). The next chapter discusses the State Politics (pages 107-134) with sections such as Administration, Structure, Economy, National Resources, Education, Health, National Defense, etc.

The Anatolian Culture has been divided into sections like Language, Religion, Mythology, Architecture, Anatolian and Islamic Art (pages 138-1-261).

"Places of Interest" covers Istanbul and Marmara, Aegean, Mediterranean and Central Anatolian regions (pages 265-505). Cities, museums, monuments, ruins, mountains, seas, islands, rivers, lakes (and their archaic/historical names), and significant events and persons (Battle of the Dardanelles, Sappho, Iznik Council, etc.) are discussed under those headings.

"Useful Tips" summarizes everything that a tourist guide should mention to an individual traveler or a group from the monetary system to tips (pages 507-516).

There is plenty of useful information in the Annex section (distances between cities, comparison between Hellenistic and Roman temples, etc.).

The chronology can also be very useful for the tourist guides.

CONCLUSION:

Reading a book, which has not been prepared by foreign writers or publishers eliminated all my problems listed in the introduction of TURKISH ODYSSEY. I hope TURKISH ODYSSEY is published in other languages as well. I believe any traveler who reads this book will ask us fewer but more meaningful questions. And new beginners in our profession as well as tourists will benefit from this book to a great extent.